Martin Lewis calls out government inaction on scam ads

What Martin Lewis actually said

In May 2026, Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert and one of the UK’s most prominent consumer finance advocates, wrote directly to the Prime Minister to challenge the government’s inaction on scam advertisements. The letter, published on MoneySavingExpert and co-signed with consumer group Which?, used the Prime Minister’s own earlier words against him.

“Dear Prime Minister, you said to Big Tech ‘if you profit from harm and abuse, you lose the right to self-regulate’ – yet you’ve done almost nothing to tackle scam ads?”

The question is pointed because it quotes a commitment the Prime Minister made publicly about holding technology platforms to account. Lewis argues that promise has not translated into meaningful action to protect UK consumers from fraudulent paid advertisements appearing on major search and social media platforms.

The full letter is available to read on MoneySavingExpert.

What the campaign is asking for

Lewis and Which? are pressing the government to take concrete steps to enforce accountability on Big Tech platforms that carry paid scam advertisements. The central argument is straightforward: when a platform accepts payment to display an advertisement that turns out to be fraudulent, it has profited from harm to a UK consumer.

The campaign calls on the government to go beyond the existing commitments made under the Online Safety Act 2023 and to ensure that platforms face real consequences for hosting verified scam ads. Specific legislative or regulatory measures requested are detailed in the published letter on MoneySavingExpert (exact policy asks pending full publication review).

Which? has consistently documented the scale of harm caused to UK consumers by online fraud rooted in misleading paid promotions, including fake investment schemes, impersonation of banks, and fraudulent holiday and retail offers.

Why scam ads remain a serious risk for UK consumers

Scam ads are paid placements on search engines and social media feeds that impersonate legitimate companies, financial products, or well-known public figures, including, on numerous documented occasions, Martin Lewis himself. Because they appear in paid slots that sit visually alongside or above genuine search results, they carry a misleading air of legitimacy.

Common categories seen by UK consumers include fake investment opportunities, fraudulent pension schemes, impersonated bank accounts, and counterfeit retail or travel offers. Victims often lose significant sums before realising the advertisement was not genuine.

The Online Safety Act 2023, passed under the previous government, was intended to address illegal content including fraudulent advertising. However, campaigners argue that the Act’s provisions on paid-for scam ads have not been implemented with sufficient urgency or teeth to change platform behaviour.

Figures on total UK consumer losses specifically attributed to scam ads are pending verification from Action Fraud and the ONS, but online fraud as a whole accounted for a substantial share of all crime reported in England and Wales in recent years, according to Office for National Statistics crime data.

The government’s existing commitments and where they stand

The Prime Minister’s remark that Big Tech would “lose the right to self-regulate” if it profits from harm was made as a statement of intent about the government’s approach to platform accountability. Lewis’s letter uses it as a benchmark against which to measure actual progress.

Critics of the current position point out that platforms continue to earn advertising revenue from fraudulent ads that slip through moderation systems, and that the burden of reporting and recovery falls disproportionately on the individual consumer who has been defrauded.

The government’s position, as of the date of Lewis’s letter, has not included a specific mandatory reimbursement or liability framework for Big Tech platforms in relation to scam ads, which is distinct from the reimbursement rules that now apply to banks and payment service providers under the Payment Systems Regulator’s rules that came into force in October 2023. More information on those bank reimbursement rules is available at Payment Systems Regulator.

Which? and the broader consumer protection picture

Which? has been one of the most active organisations in the UK documenting and campaigning against online scam advertising. The consumer group has previously published research into how scam ads appear across Google, Facebook, and other major platforms, and has called for platforms to be treated as legally responsible for the advertising content they profit from.

By joining Lewis’s letter to the Prime Minister, Which? is escalating the campaign from research and reporting to direct political pressure. The combination of Lewis’s public profile and Which?’s institutional credibility is intended to make it harder for the government to treat the issue as a matter for future review rather than immediate action.

Readers can find Which?’s scams and fraud coverage at which.co.uk/consumer-rights/scams.

What UK consumers can do today

While the policy debate continues, UK consumers can take practical steps to reduce their exposure to scam ads and to report the ones they encounter.

Before engaging with any online advertisement:

• Check that the URL in the ad matches the legitimate company’s official domain exactly.
• Search for the company or product independently rather than clicking the ad link directly.
• Be especially cautious with financial products, investment opportunities, and anything promising unusually high returns.
• If an ad features a celebrity endorsement, verify that claim on the individual’s or brand’s official channels before proceeding.

If you have seen or been affected by a scam ad:

• Report to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.
• Report the ad directly to the Advertising Standards Authority at asa.org.uk.
• Use the platform’s own reporting tool (every major search and social platform has a mechanism to flag individual ads).
• If you have lost money, contact your bank immediately and ask about the chargeback or fraud reimbursement process.

For broader context on staying safe from mobile and online scams, see the mobile scams hub on this site.

How this fits into the wider scam landscape

The Lewis letter lands at a moment when pressure on both government and tech platforms over online fraud is intensifying. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Action Fraud both regularly highlight paid advertising as a vector for fraud that is increasingly sophisticated and difficult for ordinary consumers to detect without prior awareness.

The Advertising Standards Authority has the power to ban misleading advertisements, but its remit does not extend to imposing financial penalties at a scale that would meaningfully change the commercial calculation for large platforms. That gap, between what the ASA can do and what would actually deter platforms from carrying scam ads, is precisely the space Lewis and Which? are asking the government to fill.

Related reading: if you are concerned about scams specifically targeting your mobile account or phone number, see our guide on how to spot and report SIM swap fraud.

What happens next

The letter is a public document and is intended to generate political pressure as much as a private response. The government is expected to respond, though the timeline and substance of any reply will depend on ministerial priorities in the coming weeks.

Lewis and Which? have indicated this is not a one-off intervention. If the government does not set out a credible plan to require platforms to take financial responsibility for scam ads they carry, further escalation, including parliamentary engagement, is likely.

UK consumers who want to follow developments can monitor MoneySavingExpert’s news section and Which?’s campaigns page for updates as the campaign progresses.